


Surprise!

by SomeonetheElusiveFangirl



Series: Voltron Headcanons [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Lance's Birthday, M/M, Post-Season/Series 02, keith is nervous, lance is confused, they both get surprised, this is one of the purest things I've written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 20:33:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15469491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeonetheElusiveFangirl/pseuds/SomeonetheElusiveFangirl
Summary: When Lance can't seem to find anybody in the Castle, he knows something is up. Even Kaltenecker is missing for crying out loud!Little does he know that there's a surprise in store for him.





	Surprise!

**Author's Note:**

> So here's another old headcanon from Lance's birthday last year! This is set after season 2 finale and I've done my best to correct any mistakes but let me know if I've missed anything!

Allura was both confused and wary of most Earth customs. They very rarely made any sense to her, though she did become fond of a few of them. She couldn’t fathom what Earth must be like, with such rich culture, and couldn’t help but let the paladins’ enthusiasm get to her whenever they spoke of another custom. She was now curious as to what they’d show her next. 

Allura _was_ still wary, as learning about Earth culture did not always work out well for her. She had since decided that “pranking” was her least favourite. Thus, when Hunk and Pidge ran into the bridge, mouths moving rapidly as their words blurred incoherently, Allura felt a mixture of fear and excitement. 

Eventually, Coran managed to coax them into speaking in actual sentences. They started talking about having been curious as to how long they’ve been away from Earth, Pidge mentioning using the Castle’s logs to calculate the length of time. Then Hunk chipped in, saying how they then converted it into “hours” and Earth days. He began speaking about dates, though nothing like any Allura had ever heard of. 

“So we’ve worked out that today is the 28th of July!” Hunk finished, a huge grin spread across his face. 

“So? What’s so special about the 28th?“ Keith asked, making Pidge and Hunk jump, too caught up in explaining their discovery to notice when he came in a dobash ago. They both let out a sigh of relief, Hunk muttering how glad he was that Lance wasn’t a morning person. The two of them both exchanged a look before stating that the conversation needed to continue somewhere more secure. Allura was confused, but didn’t question them. She needed to know what had got them so worked up. They settled on relocating to Pidge’s room, having dismissed everywhere else, including Keith’s room, to his confusion. 

Once there, they explained everything. It sounded like a good idea, but you could never know when it came to the paladins. They were just too unpredictable. However, Allura let the last of her fear slip away as she gazed around the room. Hunk and Pidge were beaming, and even Keith had a small smile, and combined with the buzzing auras they were giving off, the good mood was infectious. Besides, it was rare to see them all so excited, especially since Shiro’s disappearance. 

* * *

Lance was confused. He’d woken up and immediately headed to the bridge to go and check up on the Princess, who was always up early. To his surprise, the bridge was empty, no sign of Allura nor Coran. This alone was odd, but when Lance found no sign of anyone in the dining room or kitchen, he could feel worry seeping into his mind. Lance, however, ignored it, making his way to the council room and then the hangars, only to find them all empty. Okaaaay… _Now_ he was starting to worry. 

He check the labs, but he was only greeted by the mess of the workstation, no quiet murmuring to be heard. That was odd. Pidge spent nearly _all_ of her free time working in the labs. What had started out as a quick search for Allura seemed to be turning into a full on hunt for _anyone_.

Tired of searching, Lance headed to Kaltenecker’s enclosure. He often went there if he just wanted to relax and chat nonsense to someone who wouldn’t judge him, nor send him away after 5 minutes. 

"What the quiznak?!” he exclaimed upon finding the room empty. This was ridiculous. Had the others gone off somewhere? Taking Kaltenecker, but _not_ Lance?! …Nah, _that_ was ridiculous! 

Walking the corridors of the Castle alone made Lance appreciate quite how big the place was. The towering white walls and the metallic sound of his footsteps’ echoes made the place, which he had started to think of as a second home, feel cold and intimidating. And so very empty. 

It was quiet. Unnaturally quiet. Normally Lance would be walking with someone, and even if he wasn’t he could still hear the others either working in the labs, discussing plans in the bridge or chatting in the dining room. Even the hum of the engine sounded muted. 

A shiver worked its way down Lance’s spine. He shook his head, lightly slapping his cheeks as he took off in a fast stride. He had _just_ about forgiven the Castle for trying to kill him, he couldn’t afford to let himself be scared now. Lance McClain did not get scared! 

He checked all the rooms he passed, going back to the bridge and kitchen to check they hadn’t gone there in the time he’d been searching. He even went to check on the pool. When he reached the hallway where their rooms were located, another idea struck. Were they all just asleep? It didn’t seem very likely, as Lance knew he was almost always the last to get up, but then again, they didn’t exactly have clocks in the Castle, so maybe, for once, Lance had just got up before everyone else. 

He went to Hunk’s room first, knowing he’d feel less embarrassed if he showed how worried he had been to his friend. He tapped lightly on the door, waited for a few moments and then knocked slightly harder. Still no response, even when he called out to him. 

He did the same with Pidge, but still nothing. This was getting beyond strange. If Pidge wasn’t in the labs, nor in her room, then she had to be with the others somewhere. Finally, he opened Keith’s door, not trusting him to respond, even if he was still in there. 

“Kei-…” He didn’t bother to finish the greeting, his eyes falling on an empty bed. He sighed, slumping as he turned to leave, when he spotted a note on Keith’s bed. Curiosity piqued, he snatched it up. On it, in Keith’s messy scrawl, was Lance’s name. He unfolded the paper to find a short note, inviting him to join everyone. Only, it didn’t specify where. 

“Stupid Keith, how the hell am I supposed to find you now, when I’ve already been searching all morning?” He threw the note on the bed, crossing his arms as he sat down beside it with a huff. Was this some kind of twisted game they were playing with him? It would’ve been nice to have known about it beforehand instead of letting Lance worry. 

He stared down again at the note, only to realise it had fallen upside down. In the corner was a scrawled mess, and Lance picked it up to inspect. Next to an arrow, which was pointed from the edge, obviously meant to be from the message on the other side, was a couple of words. Though working out what they were was a challenge, as the writing was even smaller than in the message. He realised that the second one must be “room” and with that, worked out that this was supposed to be the location. Had Keith not left himself enough room to finish the message on one side? 

Now to decipher the first word. It either began with an ‘l’ or ‘t’ and ended with a ‘g’. He recalled which rooms he hadn’t yet searched, standing up when the answer came to him. How had he been so stupid? Tucking the note into his pocket, Lance made his way down to the training room. He strode through the doors as they opened, only to find himself in complete darkness. 

“What the-”

“SURPRISE!” Lance jumped at the loud shout, flinching as the lights suddenly came on. The others were gathered in front of him and proceeded to shower him in confetti, or in Pidge’s case, chuck it at his face. He spluttered as he tried to remove the confetti which had fallen into his open mouth. What the hell was going on?! 

“Guess what today is!” the little gremlin exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. 

“What?” 

“Come on, Lance, take a guess at what the date is today based on what we’re doing!” 

“I dunno? April Fools?” Hunk and Pidge laughed whilst Coran and Allura looked lost. A moo sounded from behind the group and Lance strained to see past them. 

“Was that Kaltenecker?! Why is she in the training roo-” At last he spotted the cow standing next to a table laid out in the centre of the room. Above the table floated a hologram, and Lance froze at the writing. 

‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHARPSHOOTER’

* * *

Keith watched from towards the back of the group as Lance froze, realisation and shock plastering his face as he stood there, stunned. Finally, he took a step forward and the group parted so that Lance could walk up to the table. He didn’t even glance down at it, however, his eyes still glued to the hologram. They all gathered around the table and finally his gaze moved from the message to all of them. 

“A-are you serious?” 

“We wouldn’t joke about it being your birthday, bud! Come on, today’s all about you!” Hunk then bent over to pick up the cake from the array of food he’d cooked for the meal. He lit the candles and held the cake out towards Lance before he cleared his throat and began to sing, everyone quickly joining him in an interesting rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’. 

Keith could feel his cheeks heat up gradually as he continued to sing. Keith did not sing, or at least not in front of people. Yet his embarrassment was eased by the small slipups by Allura and Coran, who had practised hard to try and memorise the song. By the end, Lance was laughing softly, the sound well worth any small humiliation. 

“Guys, I just… I mean… Thank you!” Everyone smiled, letting out cheers when Lance announced it was time to dig in. 

The feast looked amazing, even in its alien nature, and the smell was almost making Keith drool. It seemed like he was not alone, as everyone hurried to take a seat at the table, Keith sitting beside Pidge, Lance taking the seat to his left. 

As soon as they were sat, they dived in, filling their plates with the delicacies and wasting no time in digging in. Everyone but Hunk exclaimed at the taste. Somehow- Somehow he’d…

“Hunk! Oh my GOD! How did you do this?! This tastes like _actual_ food!” Lance had recovered from the shock the fastest to quickly express everyone’s surprise. 

“With a lot of experimenting!” Hunk laughed. “I hope you like them, I made sure to try and recreate your favourites!” 

“Huuuuunk!” Lance quickly jumped up from his seat to rush around the table and throw his arms around Hunk’s neck. “You’re the best friend a guy could ever want!” Hunk thanked him, patting his arms until they finally released him and they continued on with the meal. 

Pidge and Hunk explained briefly how they’d worked out the date, and soon the conversation had been dragged off down another topic. Keith allowed the warm atmosphere to envelope him, the buzz of conversation and the energy of the people at the table made the room comfortable and warm, and unbeknownst to him a large smile adorned his face for the entirety of the meal. 

“Oh right, I nearly forgot!” Suddenly a piece of paper was shoved in front of Keith, his eyes crossing as they tried to focus on it. “WHAT was _this_?!” Keith took the paper from Lance’s hand, realising that it was the note he’d left on his bed. 

“What is it?” Pidge asked as she leaned closer, peering to see what Lance was talking about. 

“The note that told me where to go. Though _why_ you chose Keith to write it is beyond me! His writing is almost impossible to read when it’s small! What would’ve happened if I’d never found you?” Beside Keith, Pidge’s smirk was growing. Damn. 

“Oh? Did you go check all our rooms?” She didn’t need to tell Lance this. It didn’t mean anything. 

“Yes.” 

“Well, I’m guessing that you didn’t try to go inside mine or Hunk’s rooms, otherwise you’d know we’d also written notes for you to find. It _is_ interesting that you went inside Keith’s though…” Keith gently shoved her off his arm. He looked to Lance, wondering how he’d react. Not that there was anything to react _to_ , but… Thankfully, the meaning behind Pidge’s teasing seemed to escape Lance whose confused face never faltered until he started up a new conversation, allowing Keith to breathe a quite sigh of relief. 

After Keith had had his fill of the pizza salad (honestly, you couldn’t make this stuff up!), it seemed the others had also had their fill, Allura and Coran seeming extremely keen to try more of their food. At this, Hunk produced a knife and handed it to Lance, sliding the cake over. 

“Make a wish!” Pidge exclaimed as he brought the knife down to make the first cut. He handed out the slices, though Keith noticed how Lance had made his thinner than the others and caught the smirk Lance directed at him as he put Keith’s plate down. Keith let it slide. It was Lance’s day after all. 

The cake turned out to be some sort of rigid moose and tasted nothing like normal cake, instead it seemed to have layers of flavours ranging from vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and many other fruit. Lance was back to his usual dramatics, moaning whenever he reached a new flavour, singing praises about how it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. 

Once all the plates were clear of any trace of food, Keith leaned back in his seat, his hand resting on his stomach. He felt delightfully full. 

“That was perfect, Hunk! The best present ever!” Keith flinched at Lance’s words, a horrible fluttering feeling replacing his pleasantly-full buzz. 

“Oh yeah? Guess you won’t be needing my present then!” Pidge taunted, earning a screech from Lance who quickly backtracked, making grabby hands at Pidge. She sighed and placed a box in Lance’s hands that were straining to reach across Keith. He quickly opened it to reveal one of their small orange timer tablets which Pidge had confiscated from them all several days ago. 

“Um, thanks…?”

“It’s not just a timer, if you’re wondering. A while back I was thinking about creating a written messaging system which we could utilise whenever we couldn’t, or didn’t want to speak, so I made modifications to the timer so that it can receive and send messages, which are encrypted when anyone other than the receiver tries to hack the signal, essentially providing an easy and safe-”

“Wait, wait, WAIT!! Did you just make me a space phone which can text?!” 

“If you’d let me _finish_ , you’d also know that it can take photos, record videos and has a memory of 50 petabytes.” 

“Pidge, you little GENIUS!” 

“You can leave out the 'little’, y'know.” 

“I’ve got to try this out right now! Come on, you need to be in the first pic!” As Lance started taking what Keith suspected to be the first of millions of selfies, Keith watched as Coran produced a blue and white jacket from beneath the table where he’d been hiding it. 

When Lance turned around and spotted it, he cried out rushing over to Coran. He slipped his jacket off, donning the new one which fitted him perfectly. 

“It’s something from when I started serving Alfor. It’s too small for me now, but seemed like it’d be just your size. Plus I do think blue suits you well!” 

“Coran, are you sure you want to give this to me? I love it, I really do, but it’s something from your time on Altea…”

“No, no, no! Please have it, it’ll just be collecting space dust otherwise. I’d much rather you gave it a purpose again!” Lance’s eyes grew misty as he launched himself on Coran, who happily returned the gesture. The warm display almost distracted Keith from his nerves. Almost. 

Allura stepped up to Lance once he’d finished embracing Coran. Lance opened his mouth, no doubt about to make a fool of himself, when Allura leaned forward and placed a light kiss on his cheek. 

“That’s my present for you. I’m afraid I didn’t have anything else to give.” Lance shook his head, finally returning from the shock he’d gone into at the contact. 

“No! No, it’s- it’s fine, more than enough! Thank you!” Now Keith was the only one that remained, and it seemed the others came to the same realisation, all turning to face him. Keith’s throat felt dry and hoarse. He looked down to his side as Pidge nudged him lightly, nodding encouragingly. It wasn’t much, but it gave him the strength to clear his throat and speak. 

“I’ve, um, got something to show you?” Ughh… Why did he sound so unsure?! He was being pathetic. 

“Oh?” Lance questioned excitedly, his happiness visible from the way he bounced on the balls of his feet. 

“And that’s our cue to leave! Enjoy!” Pidge called as she waved, making her way out of the door, soon followed by Hunk, Allura and Coran. 

“Wait, what?” Keith didn’t explain, couldn’t explain, his nerves back in full force. He went over to the table to retrieve the mind projecting headset and noted how Lance’s eyes tracked his movements, his eyebrows raising as he spotted the device. 

“Can you,” Keith cleared his throat as his voice came out raspy. “Can you close your eyes?” 

“As long as you promise not to do anything weird!” he taunted even as his eyes fell shut. Keith took a breath before putting on the headset and focused on the image he wanted to project. He watched as it came alive in the room, as the oranges and reds of the desert plains replaced the stark white of the walls, the horizon seeming to go on forever. The detail was amazing, though he put that down to the Altean engineering rather than his memory. Finally, Keith brought out the remote that Coran had given to him yesterday. With one last glance thrown at Lance, he pressed the button and watched as the room started the simulation. 

“You can open your eyes,” he muttered, his gut twisting in anticipation for what was to come. Lance looked around at the landscape, one of Keith’s favourite views of the sun setting in the desert, and Keith waited for his reaction. 

“I-I don’t know what to say,” Keith flinched, well aware of how this looked after such great presents. “I-it’s beautiful! Wow, like- woooow…” Keith noted that Lance hadn’t yet spotted Keith’s surprise slowly forming above the two of them. “Are you making this? It’s so detailed! I almost feel like I’m back on Ea-” His speech cut off suddenly and Keith watched the droplet of water roll its way down Lance’s nose. Soon more droplets fell, and Keith could feel his hair flatten and his cheeks become slick as his clothes gradually soaked. Lance stood frozen. 

When he recovered from his shock, Keith expected Lance’s energy to return. Maybe he’d dance and run about in the cool rain that fell from the clouds by the ceiling of the training room. However, when Lance finally moved, it was to close his eyes as he rolled his head backwards to face the clouds, arms spreading to his sides slightly. He stood there perfectly still as he formed the softest smile Keith had ever seen. Keith watched, entranced by the peaceful sight, as Lance’s clothes grew wet and hung heavily upon him, as his hair plastered his face and neck, seemingly ignorant to any discomfort it caused. He didn’t dare speak, the moment suddenly so fragile and peaceful. 

After some time, though Keith would not be able to recall how much, Lance raised his arms above his head, palms facing the clouds, before he brought them to his face, running then upwards so that they brushed his bangs from his face. 

“How?” How… what? How did he make it rain? 

“Oh, it turns out that the training room can simulate different conditions, and I asked if Coran could add a setting for rain. Coran, Hunk and Pidge finished finalising the simulation probably last week. Apparently they just had to make a system for creating miniscule droplets from which-”

“How did you know I missed the rain?” Oh. So that’s what he’d been asking…

“Um, Coran mentioned it when I offered to explain what rain was. I was planning on showing it to you at some point, and when I found out it was your birthday, I thought that it would be a good opportunity…” Keith trailed off, averting his eyes from Lance’s intense stare. “A-Anyway, my memory’s not great, so I can’t properly picture it raining in the desert, but you can use this to come up with your own scene.” Keith began to lift the headset, the image of the desert starting to pixelate and glitch as it lost connection, but before he could remove it two hands pushed it firmly back down. 

“No. I want to see your rain.” 

“Oh…” Keith found himself unable to think of anything else to say as he watched rivulets of water stream down Lance’s face, following the curves of his cheeks as he smiled. 

“Thank you.” 

“What? Oh, it was really nothing!” Keith rushed, feeling like the ridiculous fool Lance often made him out to be. “To be honest you should be thanking the others, they’re the ones who put in all the effort! I only came up with the idea-”

“Yeah, well, it was the _best_ idea.” Keith felt his cheeks burn, even under the cool water that continued to fall. 

“Still, I’m sorry I didn’t have an actual present to give you…”

“Ugh! You never listen to me!” Keith was about to protest, knowing that it wasn’t true, hoping that Lance knew that too, when Lance hurriedly continued, his voice suddenly stuttering as he stumbled around his words. “W-Well, since you’re so stubborn. I guess I’ll just have to s-steal a present from you!” Keith frowned in confusion, opening his mouth to question what he meant when Lance surged forward. 

Keith’s eyes widened as Lance’s chest bumped his own, his hands grabbing either sides of Keith’s face, as he felt…as he felt Lance’s lips meet his. Keith froze, his body stiff, arms stuck hovering uncertainly in the air beside Lance’s hips. 

By the time his brain managed to catch up with what was actually happening, Lance was gone, pulling back, his face turned away to the ground. 

“A-Anyway, thank you for the present!” he stuttered before he turned and practically bolted from the room, but not fast enough for Keith to miss how Lance’s ears had reddened. Keith decided red also suited Lance very well, his own blush deepening at the thought. Keith couldn’t help but feel that although it was supposed to be Lance’s surprise party, it was Keith who ended up being the most surprised. 

After all, he had never imagined that his first kiss would be stolen that day. Not that Keith was complaining.

**Author's Note:**

> And there you go! I hope you enjoyed and I'd love any feedback you have to offer!
> 
> Feel free to come chat on [my Tumblr](https://someonetheelusivefangirl.tumblr.com/)!


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